Difference between "Premium" membership and old "Lifetime" membership??

Lifetime and Unlimited are now the same. Early adopters of the Lifetime membership certainly got the better deal. Have you clicked on the little compass symbol at the top of the page yet? Gives some insight to what is coming for Unlimited members.

What compass thingy?

Visible to only some, or all?

Little gold circle thingy in the black link toolbar at the top of the page. I’m pretty sure it is only reachable for Unlimited/Lifers. It is to the right of events on my phone.

See above. Note that you must be logged in AND be a Life or Unlimited Member in order for the gold circle icon to appear.

Unlimited, not Premium Bob

I see that one of the things planned is the

“Eliminate lifetime subscription / replace with monthly Unlimited”

Any idea what this means???

Go to any of the subscription links and you will notice no Lifetime membership options. If you already were a Lifetime member on the old site, you are now Unlimited.

SOOOO… I’m going to hope my “unlimited” membership requires no further payments – ever.

Am I correct?

.

It’s all very confusing. I paid for the yearly $25. Now what? Someone who paid for the now Unlimited has to pay more monthly? That’s how I read the email.

Well, the membership can be easily just multiplied out and paid up as far in advance as you care to be. Though, the price *can* change since it is not a “locked in” price. I think you can pay for a premium membership monthly, but if you elect to go yearly, it will be locked in for the term of your subscription, usually a year.

Anyway, there is still a lot of confusion on the old lifetime subscriptions. They translate to a lifetime paid-up membership at the Unlimited level. Yes, Ryan looses over the term of the old subscription, but he gained immediate cash (and BPL can claim a guaranteed membership to any add distributors.) But, in general, he looses dollars with the lifetime subscriptions, an ongoing problem for a few years, especially when cash flow became so tight. He *is* offering this on a very limited basis if you contact him at publisher@backpackinglight.com. It is NOT a public offering. He can pick and choose who will or will not be offered this and at what price.  I am SURE it will not be the $100 it was offered at previously.

The general Basic membership was more to prevent spammers, but provided a solid base of cash flow to the company, without restricting the general readership…a real windfall. Adds, helped a lot, too. So, he maintains the paid up unlimited membership, but, at his (as the publisher) discretion, not a public offering. All magazines do this to some extent, anyway. So, this is a common practice across the industry though duration varies. This “padding” is usually allowed(up to a point) by the add companies, btw.